Elite mobility and continuity during a regime change.

How does a regime change influence elite mobility? By collecting data on elites after the Meiji Restoration in Japan in 1868, through which Japan transitioned from a feudal regime to a modern regime, we provide new evidence that the impact of the regime change on elite mobility varies across the stages of the regime change. We analyze the impact of the regime change from two aspects: (1) the composition of elites or elite membership and (2) the internal hierarchy within them. The regime change opened an opportunity for commoners to join the elite group. After the Meiji Restoration, the share of elites whose fathers were commoners in the former regime increased, as did the influence of meritocracy on elite ranks. However, once the new regime was established, the elite hierarchy started to reflect the social stratum of the former regime and the influence of meritocracy declined.

The Lifelong Mysterious Relapsing "Kidney" Disease of the Founder of Turkey; Atatürk (1881-1938) in Connection with European Medical and Political History.

INTRODUCTION: Although Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) was a national hero with his intrepid and enlightened attempts to establish modern Turkey from the remnants of Ottoman heritage, he had been suffering from lifelong "kidney disease" that appeared with intermittent flank pain and fever without an identified source. However, we think that this physical pain that he endured only increased his motivation to focus on his military and political aims. Methods & Results: In this historical review article, we have focused on his personal medical life and specifically his "kidneys" from the beginning of the complaint till his death through European medical and political history with geographic locations and speculated upon it via past, near past, and recent medical literature. CONCLUSION: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the great military and political leader for his country, had always suffered from uro/nephrological problems throughout his life. We think that this was one of the reasons that urology has been privileged and thus to be the oldest separated medical surgical branch in Turkey and to some significant extent with European urological history.

The Barbarians Are at the Gate!

Nicholas Martin's contribution to science is well known. This article reviews one small part of his pioneering work that integrated political and social attitudes with behavior genetics. Nick Martin, in part, led to a paradigm shift in the social sciences, and in political science in particular. These fields were previously wed to behavioralist approaches and now routinely include genetic influences in both theoretical and empirical study. This article also celebrates a part of Nick's contribution that many do not know. Nick Martin does not just build science, he builds scientists. There are many who would not be academics or scholars without Nick's guidance, mentorship and friendship. This review was written to express the deepest appreciation for what he has done and continues to do for science and the scientist.

Psychiatrists and mental health activism during the final phase of the Franco regime and the democratic transition.

In the final years of the Franco dictatorship and during the period known as the democratic transition, there were a significant number of protests in the sphere of mental health in Spain. This article analyses the origins and functioning of the Psychiatric Network, which emerged in 1971, its connection to the formation of professional organizations and its role in the reception of anti-psychiatry ideas in Spain. We reach the conclusion that, although the Network's activities took place within a left-wing political and ideological framework, and at such an important time of social change as the end of the dictatorship, its discourse and practices always demonstrated a marked professional approach.

On Social and Political Effects of Plant Pest and Disease Epidemics.

Selected historical pest and disease outbreaks in the Old World are discussed in view of their social and political consequences. Large-scale epidemics always caused social unrest, and often hunger, pestilence, and death. When coming on top of deeply rooted and widely spread social unrest such epidemics contributed to political change. Examples are the revolts following epidemics in 1789 and 1846. Epidemics, regardless of causal and target organisms, have elements in common. The notion of a common concept grew into a firmly established discipline: epidemiology.

Prehistoric deforestation at Chaco Canyon?

Ancient societies are often used to illustrate the potential problems stemming from unsustainable land-use practices because the past seems rife with examples of sociopolitical "collapse" associated with the exhaustion of finite resources. Just as frequently, and typically in response to such presentations, archaeologists and other specialists caution against seeking simple cause-and effect-relationships in the complex data that comprise the archaeological record. In this study we examine the famous case of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, during the Bonito Phase (ca. AD 860-1140), which has become a prominent popular illustration of ecological and social catastrophe attributed to deforestation. We conclude that there is no substantive evidence for deforestation at Chaco and no obvious indications that the depopulation of the canyon in the 13th century was caused by any specific cultural practices or natural events. Clearly there was a reason why these farming people eventually moved elsewhere, but the archaeological record has not yet produced compelling empirical evidence for what that reason might have been. Until such evidence appears, the legacy of Ancestral Pueblo society in Chaco should not be used as a cautionary story about socioeconomic failures in the modern world.

Psychiatric governance, völkisch corporatism, and the German Research Institute of Psychiatry in Munich (1912-26). Part 2.

This is the second of two articles exploring in depth some of the early organizational strategies that were marshalled in efforts to found and develop the German Research Institute of Psychiatry (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie). The first article analysed the strategies of psychiatric governance - best understood as a form of völkisch corporatism - that mobilized a group of stakeholders in the service of higher bio-political and hygienic ends. This second article examines how post-war imperatives and biopolitical agendas shaped the institute's organization and research. It also explores the financial challenges the institute faced amidst the collapse of the German financial system in the early Weimar Republic, including efforts to recruit financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation and other philanthropists in the USA.

Psychiatric governance, völkisch corporatism, and the German Research Institute of Psychiatry in Munich (1912-26). Part 1.

This is the first of two articles exploring in depth some of the early organizational strategies that were marshalled in efforts to found and develop the German Research Institute of Psychiatry (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie) in 1917. After briefly discussing plans for a German research institute before World War I, the article examines the political strategies and networks that Emil Kraepelin used to recruit support for the institute. It argues that his efforts at psychiatric governance can best be understood as a form of völkisch corporatism which sought to mobilize and coordinate a group of players in the service of higher biopolitical and hygienic ends. The article examines the wartime arguments used to justify the institute, the list of protagonists actively engaged in recruiting financial and political support, the various social, scientific and political networks that they exploited, and the local contingencies that had to be negotiated in order to found the research institute.

Feyerabend on politics, education, and scientific culture.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a sympathetic reconstruction of the political thought of Paul Feyerabend. Using a critical discussion of the idea of the 'free society' it is suggested that his political thought is best understood in terms of three thematic concerns-liberation, hegemony, and the authority of science-and that the political significance of those claims become clear when they are considered in the context of his educational views. It emerges that Feyerabend is best understood as calling for the grounding of cognitive and cultural authorities-like the sciences-in informed deliberation, rather than the uncritical embrace of prevailing convictions. It therefore emerges that a free society is best understood as one of epistemically responsible citizenship rather than epistemically anarchistic relativism of the 'anything goes' sort-a striking anticipation of current debates about philosophy of science in society.

Challenging Expertise: Paul Feyerabend vs. Harry Collins & Robert Evans on democracy, public participation and scientific authority: Paul Feyerabend vs. Harry Collins & Robert Evans on scientific authority and public participation.

This paper compares Feyerabend's arguments in Science in a Free Society to the controversial theory of expertise proposed by Harry Collins and Robert Evans as a Third Wave of Science Studies. Is the legitimacy of democratic decisions threatened by the unquestioned authority of scientific advice? Or does, on the contrary, science need protection from too much democratic participation in technical decisions? Where Feyerabend's political relativism envisions democratic society as inherently pluralist and demands equal contribution of all traditions and worldviews to public decision-making, Collins and Evans hold a conception of elective modernism, defending the reality and value of technical expertise and arguing that science deserves a privileged status in modern democracies, because scientific values are also democratic values. I will argue that Feyerabend's political relativism provides a valuable framework for the evaluation of Collins' and Evans' theory of expertise. By constructing a dialog between Feyerabend and this more recent approach in Science and Technology Studies, the aim of this article is not only to show where the two positions differ and in what way they might be reconciled, but also how Feyerabend's philosophy provides substantial input to contemporary debate.

A loosening tray of sand? Age, period, and cohort effects on generalized trust in Reform-Era China, 1990-2007.

This study examines the transition of generalized trust in mainland China from 1990 to 2007. Using the methodology of intrinsic estimator to analyze the repeated cross-sectional survey data from the World Values Survey, we separate age, period, and cohort effects on the extent of generalized trust of Chinese citizens. Empirical findings suggest that (1) There is a declining trend in the level of generalized trust across different periods from 1990 to 2007, net of age and cohort effects; (2) People's confidence in an ordinary social member increases as they age, a pattern resembling that of many Western societies; (3) The cohorts that experience the totalitarian Mao's Era in the formative stage of their life course stand out in evidently lower trust in generalized others, relative to those cohorts with formative stage falling in the Reform Era.

The transnational circulation of scientific ideas: importing behavioralism in European political science (1950-1970).

This article aims to deepen our understanding of the transatlantic circulation of scientific ideas during the Cold War by looking at the importation of behavioralism in European political science. It analyses the social, institutional, and intellectual dynamics that led to the creation, in 1970, of a transnational organization that aimed to promote behavioralism in Europe: the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). Using qualitative material drawn from archives and interviews, the study shows that the creation of the ECPR was the joint product of academic, scientific, and political rivalries. It argues that the founding of the organization served a purpose for several agents (chiefly, academic entrepreneurs and philanthropic foundations) who pursued different strategies in different social fields in the context of the Cold War. More broadly, it suggests that the postwar development of the social sciences and the circulation of scientific ideas are best accounted for by mapping sociological interactions between scientific fields and neighboring social spheres.

Freedom and authority in the Clinical Diary.

The paper discusses some philosophical, ethical and political-philosophical implications of Ferenczi's Clinical Diary, with special regard to the concepts of freedom and authority. These topics are already present in Ferenczi's early writings that explicitly deal with social and political issues, the central concept of which is "individual socialism". The paper also discusses (and publishes in Appendix) two short manuscripts by Ferenczi, written probably in 1920, which attempts to parallel psychoanalysis with Marxism, and with liberal socialism, respectively. It is shown that in 1932, the last year of his life, Ferenczi avoids using political and ideological concepts directly in his Diary, but, in the spirit of his earlier writings, he proposes a balance between "ruthless capitalism and fanciful egalitarianism". Finally, the significance of Utopia in Ferenczi's thinking is discussed.

[The Early Years of Military Laser Research and Technology in the Federal Republic of Germany During the Cold War]. / Die Anfänge der Militärischen Laserforschung und Lasertechnik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland im Zeitalter des Kalten Krieges.

The invention of the laser in 1960 and the innovation process of laser technology during the following years coincided with the dramatic increase of the East-West-conflict during the 1960s - the peak of the so-called Cold War after the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The predictable features of the new device, not only for experimental sciences, but also for technical and military applications, led instantly to a laser hype all over the world. Military funding and research played a major part in this development. Especially in the United States military laser research and development played an important role in the formation of Cold War sciences. The European allies followed this example to a certain degree, but their specific national environments led to quite different solutions and results. This article describes and analyzes the special features and background of this development for the Federal Republic of Germany in the area of conflict between science, politics and industry from 1960 to the early 1970s.

[The Revista médica de Hamburgo. A medical journal as an instrument of German foreign cultural propaganda during the Weimar Republic]. / Die Revista médica de Hamburgo. Eine medizinische Fachzeitschrift als Instrument deutscher auswärtiger Kulturpropaganda während der Weimarer Republik.

After the First World War, foreign cultural policy became one of the few fields in which Germany could act relatively free from the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. In this context, in 1920 the Hamburg doctors Brauer, Nocht and Mühlens created a monthly medical journal in Spanish (and a bit of Portuguese) for use as an instrument of cultural propaganda, i.e. to increase German influence in Spain and, more importantly, in the countries of Latin America: the Revista médica de Hamburgo (since 1928 Revista médica germano-ibero-americana). The focus of the article is on the protagonists of the Revista project, i.e. the Hamburg doctors, the Cultural Department of the Foreign Office in Berlin, the German pharmaceutical industry, and the publishing houses involved: their conceptions and actions; their correspondence, negotiations, agreements and controversies.